Girl, Stolen

Cheyenne Wilder is a 16-year-old girl. Three years ago, when she was walking with her mother and dog on the side of a road, a driver swerved into them, killing Cheyenne’s mother and dog, and leaving Cheyenne blind. Although she is legally blind, Cheyenne has retained a “ten-degree slice on the very left edge” of her field of vision (38). She has dark eyes, and Griffin Sawyer describes her as pretty. After her accident, she was depressed for many months before going to a residential school to learn the skills needed to navigate the world. When she turns 16, Cheyenne is given a guide dog named Phantom. She has developed her other senses to compensate for her lack of sight and can glean a lot of information through smell, touch, and hearing. At the beginning of Girl, Stolen, she has a case of pneumonia for which she has been prescribed medication.

She is characterized as quick-thinking, resilient, and determined, turning her disadvantages into advantages. She loves her father, Nick Wilder, but has a strained relationship with her stepmother, Danielle. She is sympathetic, easily able to see from another’s perspective. She is also intuitive and seems to know when people are dangerous, like TJ, and when they’re not, like Griffin.